Streets to become more pedestrian friendly

Shopping streets in Leeds city centre are to become more pedestrian friendly, after Leeds City Council agreed to extend the times during which they are fully pedestrianised.

Over the last few years shops in the city centre’s pedestrianised area have been opening later, with many now open until 8pm, and the peak shopping time on Saturdays is now after 3pm.

Key shopping streets such as Briggate, Commercial Street and Lands Lane will soon benefit from being fully pedestrianised until 7pm, rather than the current time of 4.30pm.

Cllr Richard Lewis, Executive Member for Development and the Economy, said:

“Leeds is one of the UK’s top shopping destinations and we have seen an increase in footfall over the past year with the opening of Trinity Leeds. Leeds has moved up a place in the national retail rankings, and we expect to move even higher when Victoria Gate opens in 2016. The British Retail Consortium reported a drop in national city centre footfall late last year, but Leeds city centre bucked that trend with a very strong Christmas.

“We have also seen more shoppers coming into Leeds in the evening after work, and we need to provide a really good shopping environment for them. We feel that allowing heavy goods vehicles on to the pedestrianised area at 4.30pm is too early and it does not encourage people to stay and shop.

“We’ve been working with businesses to agree on an increase in the pedestrianised times. We recognise that businesses need to take deliveries so we’ve agreed that extending the pedestrianised hours until 7pm provides a good balance between the needs of businesses and pedestrians.

“Our hope is that these changes will lead to higher footfall in the evenings, which will lead to stronger sales for businesses and a boost to the local economy.”

The new pedestrianised hours will be 10.30am until 7pm, seven days a week. The changes will come into force on Monday 30 June 2014.